SANDERS PANDERS: On Gun-Control and Switches his Stance

The gut level impulses of either Sanders or somebody on his staff are showing now that the pressure is on because he’s backing off on some of his longest held beliefs in an effort to get further to the left of Clinton. The latest subject on the Flip Flop Watch is immunity for weapons manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits.

On the eve of the next Democratic debate, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced his support for legislation that would reverse a 2005 law granting gun manufacturers legal immunity that he once supported.

Sanders’ changed position came in a statement issued after days of attacks from rival Hillary Clinton, who had attempted to use his previous vote to undercut his liberal image…

Campaign aides said the decision was not a flip-flop, arguing that Sanders backed the 2005 law in part because of provisions that require child safety locks on guns and ban armor-piercing ammunition.

“Those were important provisions that I did support,” Sanders said in a statement.

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Bernie Sanders should have at least some idea of what to expect since he was peppered with the same questions the last time the two faced off. During that debate, Bernie was already edging away from his long held position on gun manufacturer immunity, but wasn’t quite ready for the full scale pander.

Q: For a decade, you said that holding gun manufacturers legally responsible for mass shootings is a bad idea. Do you want to shield gun companies from lawsuits?

SANDERS: Of course not. This was a large and complicated bill. There were provisions in it that I think made sense. For example, do I think that a gun shop in the state of Vermont that sells legally a gun to somebody, and that somebody goes out and does something crazy, that that gun shop owner should be held responsible? I don’t. On the other hand, where you have manufacturers and where you have gun shops knowingly giving guns to criminals or aiding and abetting that, of course we should take action.

Sanders’ inexperience is showing through here because he clearly should have been ready for this. Clinton’s allies and apologists have been stirring the pot on this one from the moment he got in the race. When Slate was making their big pitch to support Hillary Clinton and undermine Sanders last year they published a piece titled “Bernie Sanders, Gun Nut.” In it, they covered a variety of pro-gun votes that Bernie took, but they really zoomed in on his 2005 vote passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).